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SUSAN C. BYRNE
oral transmissions and dsod initiation.”* He regards these two teachers and Ven.
Luwsandamba as his gurus, greatly admiring them for their valuable contribution to
the revival of Buddhism after 1990. At some stage he completed a Buddhist Studies
degree atthe Dsanabadsar Buddhist University in Gandan Monastery in Ulaanbaatar
after which he returned to Baganuur. It seems he attended the second revival, Ont¬
sar Esheelin, where he re-met Ven. NB who had been a monk with him in Yengar
Shaddüwdarjaalin.
The two founders of this temple — Informant 3 and Ven. NB — make a very strong
claim to be the true revival of Kherlengiin dsüün khüree (Khögshin khüree). Both
had been monks in the first revival; one joined the temple not long after it began in
1990 and was described as “the last disciple of Ven. Luwsandamba” and the other
was a novice. They base their legitimacy to claim to be reviving Khögshin khüree
on the fact that they took over the mantle directly from the old monks: they had re¬
ceived a direct transmission of the traditions, rhythms (aya dan) and püja practices
of the old monastery. Informant 1 told me how Ven. Luwsandamba passed on clear
advice and instructions on running the revived temple. “Even though it is impossible
to revive the Khögshin khüree as a whole, we wanted to preserve (it) and pass down
its traditions into next generation and prevent that the khüree being forgotten in the
future ... (It is) important to preserve and pass down to the youth whatever I heard
and learnt from the elderly practitioners from the Khögshin khüree.”
The idea of reviving a monastery ‘as a whole’ is something monks I met in the
early 1990s had talked to me about although as the 1990s moved into the 20008 it
was clear few had succeeded. This is mainly due to lack of funds and / or a local
population big enough to be able to support a revived temple economically as well
as having a body of educated monks. (In the early years of the Buddhist revival
many monasteries in the countryside sent young monks to Gandan Monastery, who
in turn, the Head Abbot Ven. D. Choidsamts told me in the early 1990s, had a policy
of educating monks from all over the country. However, I learnt that as the years
passed that many of these student monks did not return to their home place on
completing their Buddhist education preferring to stay in the capital either to
continue being monks or taking up lay life.)
Today I know of only a handful of monasteries in the country having, what could
be described as, a full sangha (body of monks) and fully revived cycle of ceremonies
and rituals not to mention all the monastic buildings that once functioned. The best
example is the aforementioned Gandan Monastery, in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, desig¬
nated as the Head Monastery in the country after 1990. This monastery having been
closed at the time of the purges, was re-opened in 1944 and operated, under heavy
control, throughout the Communist years. Even so the monastery, which has re-built
three philosophical temples (Gungaachoilin, Idgaachoinzinlin and Dashchoimbel)
has, in addition restoring the Avalokitesvara Temple (Migjid Janraiseg), incorporated
26 The integration of Nyingma or Red tradition practices such as dsod into Gelugpa monasteries was
common throughout Mongolia and could be said to be a differentiating factor when Mongolian
Buddhist practice is being compared with Buddhist practice in the Tibetan sphere.
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